On Tuesday November 27, 2018, twenty students from the AP Biology classes and Science Club at Ambridge Area High School attended a local genetics conference at North Allegheny Senior High School with Mr. Eric Harbison, AP Biology Teacher and Science Club Sponsor.

The Genetics Update Conference is held yearly by Sam Rhine. Sam Rhine is a medical geneticist and received his education from Indiana University in Indiana, as well as spending some time at Harvard Medical School. His conferences provide updates on the newest discoveries in genetics and medicine. Some highlights include the discovery of DNA segments that are correlated to common diseases and traits, the ability to use pig organs for transplants into humans to eliminate the waiting list predicament, and the ability to use a medical process known as CRISPR to perform genome editing to remove detrimental mutations from a person’s DNA. With the discovery of the DNA segments that are common in everyday diseases and traits, CRISPR can be used to edit those sequences with the hopes of one day curing ailments such as Autism, Schizophrenia, Type 2 Diabetes, and many more.

The biggest discovery Mr. Rhine shared with our students is that scientists have successfully used CRISPR to remove a harmful mutation from a developing embryo. This success was confirmed and published, as the embryo developed into a perfectly healthy baby that was born ONE DAY before our students attended the conference. It certainly is an exciting time in the world of Science!

Ambridge Area High School will send two students to the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association’s District 5 Honors Band and Honors Chorus this month.

Kamryn Rudolph was selected by audition to participate in PMEA District 5 Honors Chorus held at Westminster College on November 1-3. Guest Conducting at the festival was Dr. Christopher Kiver, music professor and choral director at the Pennsylvania State University. Marjorie Jarsulic was selected by audition to participate in PMEA district 5 Honors Band to be held at Westminster College November 29-December 1. The guest conductor for this ensemble will be Mr. Patrick Burns, adjunct professor of music at Montclair State University.

PMEA District 5 is comprised of school districts from Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer Counties. Students are selected to the Honors Band and Chorus based on their scores in a live audition, performing a prepared solo piece selected by PMEA.

Ryan Racioppo and his twin sister, Haley take part in the Westinghouse educational program on Saturdays that are offered here in the Pittsburgh area. Both also participate in the NMSI AP program in the AASD.

Ryan was so impressed and engaged with one of the recent Westinghouse presenters he took the initiative to approach him to learn more about his area of specialization. Dr. L. Alberto Cangahuala is the Europa Clipper Mission System Manager with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. The laboratory works in affiliation with NASA on space exploration missions and projects.

Dr. Cangahuala was so impressed during his interactions with Ryan that he offered to visit his school. Ryan, along with his Physics teacher Mr. Paul Hladio, corresponding with Dr. Cangahuala, collaborated with AAHS administration to have the distinguished professional visit Ambridge Area School District November 10, 2018. Dr. Cangahuala's afternoon visit included an awe-inspiring presentation on the Europa Project. It was truly an event filled with insight and details on how this project will be executed by 2030, including the rational for selecting the Europa moon of Jupiter for exploration, what and how exploration data will be selected to make the trip, why the team believed water exist on the moon and insight how the professional from Baldwin Wallace went on to attend MIT to lead the team for JPL. We only regret that we actually ran out of time at the end of the school day.

Dr. Cangahuala’s family still resides in the Western PA area and he has agreed to visit AAHS again in the future. We look forward to the time that visit can be realized.

The following was Dr. Cangahuala’s note to Ryan Racioppo as a follow up to his time at AAHS:

“Thanks to you and the staff for making yesterday’s meeting possible, and for the pictures. You showed great initiative in reaching out in the first place; whileI hope I helped with your queries, I must thank you, Mr. Booher, and your classmates for your contagious enthusiasm. I look forward to keeping in touch; in the mean time I wish you, your class and faculty all the best in your studies in the year ahead.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 24, a group of students from the Senior High traveled to the Pittsburgh Zoo. A heartfelt thank you to the Job Training Center for Beaver County for providing students the opportunity to have an exciting, educational, fun-filled day!

On Saturday, October 20, 2018 students and staff from the AP math and computer science classes were given the opportunity to attend a Saturday Study Session in Keystone Oaks. Teachers from across the country who have been teaching the AP standards for many years were able to work with our students and staff to give insight into each subject area. Many of these master teachers also design test questions or score exams for AP. The 4-hour session provided a sharp focus on 4 major concepts in each subject area. This provided our students with the equivalent of 6 additional class periods of instruction. A total of three sessions are offered, allowing for 2.5 days of school or 18 class periods Attendance and transportation was provided at no cost to the students or district. Ambridge will be hosting the AP ELA session in November for AP students in our region.

On October 16th, a team of students from the high school entered into a design challenge at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh. The challenge was sponsored by Adventure Capital, United Healthcare, and Genyouth. The students competed against 19 other teams and the AAHS winning team won a $1,000 grant to implement the design idea they pitched to the panel of judges.

The winning presentation included ways to promote mental, nutritional, and physical health for the students and members of the community through informative and physical-based activities defined as Step One.

The students presented their ideas in front of a panel of judges and 68 other competing students in a “Shark Tank”-like scenario. One of the judges being former Pittsburgh Steeler, Charlie Batch. There were 10 grants given out in total at the Innovation Challenge. The student team from Ambridge included Lydia Ciani, Kyla Fitzgibbons, and Riley Sas. The group received one of the $1,000 grants as winners.

John Jones and Jake Dunlap also competed and presented their ideas for generating a phone app to help set up after school activities in order to promote physical activity.

Thank you to Mr. Jason Roos and Mrs. Pam Green for sponsoring and chaperoning the students to take part in the challenge.